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Correction:
Last week, in the Feb. 06 issue of the Manitoban, we mistakenly attributed a graphic to the wrong artist. The image accompanying the article "The atrocities of the Sinai Desert" was produced by Lauren Boulet.
Staff Toban Talkback
Jill Patterson, staff
Foster Lyle business manager
3
Lake Winnipeg needs wake-up call
“Threatened Lake of the Year 2013” a long time coming
Alyci A Rod Rigues, staff
W
innipeg is in the international spotlight after Lake Winnipeg was titled the “Threatened Lake of the Year 2013” by the Global Nature Fund. The label has the Lake Winnipeg Foundation (LWF) working on a solution.
Lake Winnipeg is vital to the $25 million dollar fishing industry in the North and is a recreational retreat for thousands of cottage owners. The northern part of the lake has 14,000 to 15,000 square kilometres of algal blooms. These blooms cover half of the lake’s basin and have been creeping south of the basin where it affects recreational activities.
To understand the root of the issue, Dr. Greg McCullough spoke at a seminar entitled “Climate, Flooding, and Phosphorus in Lake Winnipeg.” The seminar, which was held on Thursday, Feb. 7 at the University of Manitoba, outlined the research he has conducted on Lake Winnipeg. His research has found a significant relationship between the increase of phosphorus in the lake and the algal blooms. McCullough said that runoff from the land and various other rivers—the biggest culprit being the Red River—creates a dumping ground in the lake.
out the summers have also been killed by the toxins.
In order to reverse or lessen the impact of the threatened lake, the water quality and quantity must be taken into consideration.
McCullough said this issue is important for the public because it’s not just Lake Winnipeg; it’s the rivers, lakes, and water as a whole that are of concern. He argued that university students particularly should be interested in the issue because the future is in their hands.
There are many proposed solutions to the problem but, despite ample evidence supporting the problem, there is little indication as to which solutions will be most effective in the long run.
“There are a couple of things we do know that we can deal with fairly quickly and the only way we are going to deal with them [is] through public government pressure, which students are as capable, even more capable, of doing as anyone,” said McCullough.
McCullough said that there are five main contributors to the issue: agriculture, natural loading, the atmosphere, Winnipeg waste, and other waste water. These contributors come from Ontario, Saskatchewan,
McCullough said that people and animals are creating phosphorus loading, which is increasing algae in the form of blooms throughout the lake. People are contributing to this by dumping untreated waste water into the lake. He argued that the growing population is in need of more agriculture and the need for more agriculture calls for more fertilizer, which increases phosphorus loading.
Manitoba, and the U.S. According to McCullough, the Red River has the largest impact on Lake Winnipeg because there are no intervening bodies of water to slow the amount of phosphorus entering the lake. The Red River also creates issues due to flooding, which produces the highest levels of phosphorus.
Both fishermen and scientists have been cognizant of this issue for years. Frequent blue-green algal blooms have rendered the lake dangerous for swimmers, who receive skin irritations from the toxins. Animals that drink the water periodically through-
Federal government updates Canadians on crime agenda
Victims’ Bill of
Rights,
Quinn Riche R t, staff
T
he Conservative federal government publicly took stock of the rates of violent crime in Canada and revealed the next steps of its criminal justice strategy last Monday. Its plans for the coming months include enacting a Victims’ Bill of Rights and introducing more severe penalties for child abusers.
Sheldon Kennedy, an ex-NHL player and advocate for abuse victims, met with Vince Hawkes, deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on Monday, Feb. 4 to hold a news conference and discuss the government’s plans.
“I couldn’t have imagined 16 years ago, when I disclosed my abuse, that we’d be talking about these issues so openly and with such commitment to be making positive change for victims,” said Kennedy on the day of the meeting.
“Crime remains a serious issue that affects all Canadians. While crime has been in decline, in 2011 there were still nearly two million Criminal Code violations. More disturbingly, there were more than
“Those of you who are going to graduate and live in the province are going to live with this, and are probably going to be the ones to solve it, because it’s not going to be solved tomorrow. It’s going to be dealt with over generations with gradually changing lifestyles. It’s kind of like a diet – a crash diet is not going to solve it,” said McCullough.
McCullough stated that the goal of his research is to outline the scale of the problem, and what is understood about the problem, so that the solviung process can begin. He said that, while fishermen have known about the problem for a long time, people tend to respond more to research and scientific evidence to support claims that have huge implications.
A worst-case scenario, he said, is that the lake will deteriorate more than it already has. Historically, when this has happened in lakes, it creates an oxygen problem that changes ecosystem conditions. This will affect the fish population and create a change in the food chain.
The bestowing of the most threatened lake on a Canadian body of water was a shock to the Global Nature Fund.
“To learn that in such a large country with such few people [ . . . ] such big lakes that things can go wrong, that’s really an eye-opener,” said executive director Udo Gattenlohner to Global News.
harsher penalties for some offenders on horizon
one thousand violent offences committed each and every day across Canada,” announced Nicholson at the meeting.
Dr. Dale Spencer, who teaches a course on victims and criminal justice at the U of M, said that this is part of the reason that the proposed Victims’ Bill of Rights will be ineffective at reducing the prevalence of this type of crime.
“This is going to have no impact whatsoever [ . . . ] if you look at the literature on sex offenders, there is nothing saying that punishing them for longer will stop the victimization of children in communities,” said Spencer. “And there is nothing in the strategy of the Conservative government that will make people come forward, especially in marginalized communities that are often mistrustful of the justice system.”
Spencer said that truly empowering victims and reducing child abuse rates would require a radical reconstruction of the way Canadians think about victimization.
Nicholson mentioned that rates of child sexual offences are ris-
ing. Despite this, data compiled by the government shows that sexual assaults including those against children “are among the most underreported crimes in Canada.”
The Conservative government is also turning its focus toward the problem of repeat offenders. According to Nicholson, “15 per cent of offenders are responsible for nearly 60 per cent of all reported crimes.”
Furthermore, 43 per cent of offenders released from federal prison will be reconvicted within two years, said Nicholson.
“Those are the facts. They cannot be ignored,” he stated.
A statement released by the Department of Justice on that same day said that introducing a Victims’ Bill of Rights will “further enhance the Government’s commitment to victims of crime by entrenching their rights into a single law at the federal level.”
This move builds upon Bill C-37, which was debated in the House of Commons in 2012 and is now being reviewed in the Senate. Bill C-37 doubles victims’ surcharges, which
is an amount of money that offenders are required to pay to the victims of their crimes.
“These fine surcharges help pay for victims’ services, which are so important,” said Nicholson.
Aside from these details, more complete and specific information about what will be contained inside the Victims’ Bill of Rights is difficult to conclusively determine.
Dale Spencer argues that while Bill C-37 and the Victims’ Bill of Rights ensure consistent application of the courts’ surcharge provisions across the country, it “does not account for how police officers, the public, and the media treat victims.”
“We need a much broader effort on the part of the Canadian public and government to really tackle these issues.”
Building victim empowerment has long been a project of the Conservative government, as is outlined in the Federal Victims Strategy and a series of bills released throughout 2011 and 2012, such as the Protecting Victims from Sex Offenders Act (S-2) and the
Abolition of Early Parole Act (Bill C-59).
More controversially, last year the government introduced the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, which many saw as vague and potentially invasive towards law-abiding Canadians.
The Federal Victims Strategy, drawn up in 2007, has spent $90 million since then supporting victims of violent crime. More recently, in conjunction with the Economic Action Plan 2012, five million dollars over five years has been committed to building and improving Child Advocacy Centres – an initiative that Nicholson discussed at the meeting with Kennedy and Hawkes.
Spencer told the Manitoban that this amount pales in comparison to the $601 million dollars the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is planning to spend on updating prison infrastructure.
“This is a considerable amount of money that could have been put toward services that would benefit victims and would-be victims,” said Spencer.
Distinguished professor explores social axioms
Lecturer defines culture and patterns of prominent beliefs
Alyci A Rod Rigues, staff
D
r. Michael Harris Bond, an international professor emeritus of psychology in Hong Kong, visited the University of Manitoba on Friday, Feb. 8 to give a lecture on the topic of social axioms entitled “Culture and our beliefs about how our world operates: Two decades of research on social axioms.”
Bond is an author of over 200 international journal articles, 60 chapters in various books, and a co-author of Understanding Social Psychology Across Cultures. He is also credited for bringing the study of psychology to Hong Kong.
Bond was nominated and sponsored to give the lecture by the John G. Adair Endowment Fund, the department of psychology, the Asper school of business, and the faculty of arts. The John G. Adair international distinguished visiting lectureship is
rewarded to psychologists who practice at the international level outside of Canada and the United States. The chosen psychologist also has to be recognized for contributing valuable research to the field.
Bond presented his cross-cultural research on social axioms from over 40 different countries. He defined social axioms as “generalized beliefs about people in general, the social environment, or the spiritual and physical world.” Bond’s findings stressed the importance of taking culture into consideration when studying social psychology.
The lecture opened with the ancient Chinese idiom, “when drinking from a stream, remember its source.” Bond then delved into an overview of culture as a way for organized groups of people to make sense of the world. Bond argued that humans, who are
highly social by nature, are “socialized into a coherent and manageable world view through acquisition of language and education about reality.”
According to Bond, cultures are systems created so that individuals have ways for basic necessities to be met. These basic necessities include physical survival, shelter, security, and sustenance. In a successful culture, individuals learn “how to flourish, play, create, produce, beautify surroundings, love, and embrace what others do.”
Bond said that when people explore the concept of culture, they tend to look at nations and the relationships among them, but that culture can be created in other ways. Culture can also be explored through the concepts of family culture and relationship culture.
“A relationship you have with some-
Report from the U of M Senate
body has a culture; you develop a culture in that relationship.”
These systems, says Bond, are shared systems, which facilitate communication of meaning. They create a way for individuals to work together with the intention of reducing anxieties and uncertainties about the world. According to Bond, the two key elements of a culture are values and beliefs.
Bond’s research found five belief domains that dominated the 40 countries he studied: social cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, religiosity, and fate control. He argued that beliefs manifest as a worldview about what is, what ought to be, what exists, and what is true.
Social cynicism refers to the belief that the rest of the world cannot be trusted. Social complexity is the notion that relationships between
Student accessibility, academic misconduct statistics main topics of meeting
Quinn Riche R t, staff
The University of Manitoba Senate met on Wednesday, Feb. 6 in the engineering building senate chambers to hear annual reports from Student Accessibility Services and the university discipline committee.
Student Accessibility Services (SAS), which has existed under several different names since the 1990s, aims to “ensure equal access for students with disabilities.” Last Wednesday’s report to senate—which consisted of data compiled from September, 2011 to August, 2012—was SAS’s first such report.
The report states that overall, SAS staff feel “well supported by the University of Manitoba and are able to respond to the needs of students in a timely fashion.”
Furthermore, a section on student feedback sourced from a December, 2012 survey shows positive comments from several students, which—according to the authors—are representative of “the quality of the relationships that exist between staff and students.”
Despite this, university officials
representing SAS pointed out to the senate that there is always room for improvement.
“There is one area where Student Accessibility Services has fallen behind, as is the case across many Canadian universities, and that is assistance technology and supports,” said director of Student Advocacy and Accessibility Brandy Usick.
Also, the report summary points to several changes SAS is looking to implement in order to improve services to students. SAS would like to continue to submit annual reports, revise its policy and procedures, promote “enhanced education about SAS and disability on campus,” and make alterations to its “general operational practices.”
SAS representatives also announced that they recently hired a new employee from the Manitoba Health division who will help the university write a mental health strategy for students.
In response to a question about dramatically shifting numbers of students
registered with SAS from 2010-11 to 2011-12 in some faculties, SAS coordinator Carolyn Christie pointed out that the method for compiling data switched over from self-reporting by students to a database management system over that time period.
After this response, a member of the senate remarked that she was “struck by the notion in this report that students are underreporting and underutilizing their accessibility services.”
Jennifer Black, vice-president of advocacy for the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU), told the Manitoban that the feedback she has received from students on SAS has been mostly positive.
“A lot of students have satisfactory experiences with SAS [ . . . ] overall, the picture I have gotten is that students are satisfied with the services,” said Black.
Black added that recent accessibility grievances from students were not caused by SAS failing to deliver on its mandate, but rather the result of com-
munication barriers between different administrative organelles within the university.
“During recent construction we had an issue with elevator access at Dafoe Library [ . . . ] that wasn’t so much the fault of SAS, but there is not enough communication between all the offices on campus that are involved in dealing with these issues,” explained Black.
Following the senate’s discussion of the SAS report, the university discipline committee made its yearly presentation.
The discipline committee’s report amalgamates data from all U of M faculties, tracking acts of academic misconduct throughout the year, and condenses those statistics into a single document.
“The raw numbers this year are about the same,” said Jeff Leclerc, university secretary to the senate.
“There was an increase this year in incidences of plagiarism, which goes up and down each year but is still a concern and something that we are monitoring.”
R Achel Wood, staff
others are always changing and what people say or do are often contradictory. Reward for application holds that people tend to get out of life what they put into it. Religiosity deals with the amount of religion within in a culture, and fate control is the belief that fate has an impact on life’s outcomes. The countries Bond studied differ in the degree of each belief, but often not by much. The amount found in each culture moderately depicted psychological aspects of personality. Bond stated that behaviours, such as conflict resolution, life outcome, satisfaction, and influence tactics, have all been predicted, depending on the amount of each social axiom present within the culture.
Bond stated that Canada is open to deviance from the norm but that other cultures are not as open, accepting, or tolerant.
Black agreed that plagiarism frequencies do tend to fluctuate slightly from year to year but can also sometimes be attributed to factors such as an increase in international students attending the U of M.
“There is a higher trend for plagiarism amongst international students. Sometimes, the training on that issue may be different elsewhere than it is in Canada,” said Black.
UMSU president Bilan Arte added that a committee known as the International Student Advocacy Awareness Network (ISAAN) has been established at the U of M to look more deeply into that trend.
After a presentation on legal issues related to accommodating students with disabilities and a short question period, the senate meeting was adjourned.
The next scheduled meeting of the U of M senate is Wednesday, Mar. 6. Minutes from this meeting and prior meetings are regularly made available to read online at the university’s website.
The University of Manitoba saw several thefts during the month of January, including two cell phones, one backpack, which was left unattended, and a projector screen. One individual was found shoplifting in the bookstore.
Numerous accounts of mischief occurred during the first month of 2013. Two incidents involved damage to university posters. Ceiling tiles were damaged after a campus social. One set of fire suppression equipment—a fire extinguisher and hose—was tampered with.
Two assaults occurred: one event involved a female
being shoved by an unknown individual and the other involved a female assaulted by an acquaintance. No injuries resulted and charges were not pressed in either instance.
The cold weather in January brought about several occasions of individuals smoking both tobacco and marijuana indoors. This resulted in the monitoring of several indoor spots on campus. Six people were identified as smoking illegal drugs inside.
Security Services would like to remind all U of M staff and students that there is no smoking of any kind indoors or within eight metres of entrances.
U of M student making a difference
International Development Week focuses on human rights goals
K Aty M AcKinnon, volunteer staff
The Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC) is celebrating a University of Manitoba student, Tito Daodu, who has been working hard to make a difference.
The recognition is in light of the 23rd annual International Development Week. This year’s theme was I am Making a Difference.
From Feb. 3-9, MCIC celebrated Daodu and eight other Manitobans who have embodied the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with their actions at home and abroad.
The Millennium Development Goals were created in 2000 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There are eight goals in total, all with the intention to be reached by 2015.
MDG 3 is to promote gender equality and empower women. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) recognizes this goal as especially important in order to reach the seven other goals.
Daodu recently participated in a service learning project with the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR) to promote MDG
3. In Karatu, Tanzania, Daudo was part of a group of four University of Manitoba students who set a curriculum in motion for high school students that encouraged gender equality, female empowerment, and reproductive health.
At each school, the CPAR group worked with 30 students, a group that included 15 girls and 15 boys.
The issues chosen for the curriculum were those that were important to the students themselves.
“We really wanted to do a focus on gender, and what that meant, and what gender equality meant,” said Daodu to MCIC.
Daodu explained that both men and women are unaware of the issues surrounding gender inequality. The
Phoenix Sinclair inquiry update
Various workers involved in case questioned
Jill PAtte R son, staff
T
he inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair is still ongoing, with investigations of the child’s former social workers’ actions currently taking place.
Former CEO of Winnipeg Child and Family Services (CFS) Lance Barber answered questions regarding the workload and funding of the agency during his term there.
Barber said he did not feel hindered by the lack of funds, but did not deny the fact that there was pressure to provide the mandated services.
Barber also commented on the overabundance of people in need of their service and how they tried to make do with what they had.
“We also had a large number of children for which the state had become the guardian and we had a responsibility for those children, and we made investments in those children and we tried to be good financial stewards of the money that the people of Manitoba provided to us through the province.”
that they were running a deficit in funding year after year during her employment.
Trigg also stated that “there were probably lots of things that I wanted to accomplish, but time and money wouldn’t allow them to happen [ . . . ] I was asked to hold the fort.”
her mother, claimed that her decision to close the file on Sinclair was warranted.
Willox said that closing the file was an acceptable response based on the lack of information proving the occurrence of abuse.
It was reported that the Sinclair case was closed before the social workers had even seen Sinclair. They visited the residence and saw Sinclair’s half sister, who looked well taken after, and determined that there was no instance of abuse.
Linda Trigg, a former Winnipeg CFS CEO who took the position after Barber left, made similar statements.
She commented, as did Barber,
Trigg said that the workers should not have closed the case before seeing the child in question.
Shelley Willox, a CFS worker sent to inquire about Sinclair and
“Based on the information that I had and the concerns, or lack thereof, that were being reported to me at the time, do I agree — based on solely the report that I provided — that it was catastrophic that the file was closed at that time? No.”
It was only a few months after this incident that her mother Samantha Kematch and Kematch’s boyfriend, Karl McKay, beat Sinclair to death. Both have been convicted of first-degree murder.
The last to speak at the inquiry was Darlene MacDonald, former program manager at CFS, who was stunned to hear that the case had been repeatedly opened and closed.
“Looking at the case, I would have reviewed the history [ . . . ] Looked like they didn’t have many supports in place [ . . . ] and I would have expected it to be open long-term in Family Services.”
“You need both genders to be at the table and be equally involved and equally ready to get work started.”
– Tito Daodu
project was originally intended to target females but, upon arriving, the group realized they needed to include males in the program as well.
“We needed to get boys involved because if they weren’t you were just fighting an uphill battle. You need both genders to be at the table and be equally involved and equally ready to get work started.”
Daodu described the effect that the program had on the Tanzanian students.
“By the end of the curriculum, all of the students were together. They were making skits together around these issues and it was so neat to see these teenage girls and boys come
together and have a voice that they had developed over the course of the few weeks that we were there.”
CIDA has also contributed to MDG 3 through programs such as providing computer training to females in Egypt in order to encourage career development.
Unfortunately, the CIDA has determined that the global progress towards reaching MDG 3 has been slow. They state that female representation in parliament remains at less than 10 per cent in developing countries.
Current events, such as the recent shooting of Malala Yousufzai, emphasize the prominence of persisting gender inequality. Yousufzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani activist who focused on female education, was shot by the Taliban in October, 2012. She was discharged from a hospital in England earlier this month.
Pierre Plourde, Megan Wilton, Jo-Ellen Parry, Christine Penner, Jan Stewart, Vurayayi Pugeni, and Derryl Reid were also honoured by the MCIC.
ILLUstRatION by James CULLetON
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As tax season approaches one thing is clear for 2013: our friends and families will be paying more to the government one way or another.
Manitobans are faced with a bundle full of new or newly risen taxes and fees outlined in the provincial and municipal budgets. These increases range from many various sources and, by law, these taxes and fees all must be published and distributed in public documents for all citizens to learn about. However, there is a secret tax increase that the provincial government hasn’t reported, and it has actually been going on for quite some time.
A report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation shows that many Manitoban taxpayers pay higher income tax rates every year without even realizing it. This phenomenon is called “bracket creep,” and it is rooted in the beauty of inflation. Prices rise every year and so does your income; they all stay par to the growth rate of inflation. However, you aren’t getting any wealthier because your income is
rising when everything else is too. The Manitoba government keeps income tax rates flat instead of adjusting the brackets to stay at the rate of inflation, meaning that you potentially could be pushed into a new and higher tax bracket for no valid reason.
Now how unfair is this?
Your paycheck rises because the cost of living in general has increased and you end up having to pay more tax?
Manitoba has three provincial income tax brackets: 10.8 per cent on the first $31,000 of taxable income, 12.75 per cent on the next $36,000, and 17.4 per cent on the amount over $67,000. Each time your income grows due to the rate of inflation, you may be pushed into a new tax bracket, and thus will be taxed at a new rate. This happens even though your increased income never truly gains any new purchasing power.
get hit by this. In 2009, the personal tax exemption rate was $8,134, and in 2011 it was again $8,134, meaning there was no adjustment to these exemptions even though prices and
that since 1999 alone, bracket creep is costing taxpayers with incomes above about $40,000 an extra $156 each year in income taxes. For those with incomes above approximately $75,000, it’s costing you an extra $482 per year.
Even low-income taxpayers can
wages had gone up in that two year period. Thus, we are all losing out due to inflation regardless of what income bracket we are in. The report claims
This is a substantial amount of money for many families. Our province’s decision to leave income tax brackets flat rather than adjust them is basically a decision to let income taxes increase every year on hardworking families.
Year by year Manitobans pay all sorts of taxes and are required to report all the income that one accumulates throughout the fiscal year.
Hiding information isn’t really tolerated. Shouldn’t this work both ways? Manitoba taxpayers have every right to know what the government takes from us, as they have the right to know all the sources of your income.
This issue should be an easy fix, as
many other provincial governments have already addressed this issue and have increased their exemptions and tax brackets to stay on par with the rate of inflation. This makes sure taxpayers don’t get the raw end of the deal.
Sadly, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and P.E.I. are the only provinces that still allow for bracket creep to continue. It is disappointing that this secretive form of taxation exists, but I don’t want to completely discredit our government. Perhaps this additional revenue has gone to great use and it may be justified, but it was gained through a shady policy that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
Unfortunately, Manitobans will have to pay higher taxes this year one way or another, hidden or known. But for the sake of achieving robust transparency and a trustworthy government, I think that 2013 should be the year for bracket creep to end.
ILLUstRatION
#IdleNoMore
Acknowledging the past, facing the future
Alex PA ssey, volunteer staff
It’s been a long time coming, as the rumblings of discontent among Canada’s Aboriginal population are certainly nothing new. But until someone took to Twitter and stuck a hashtag next to the phrase “Idle No More” this past December, it was an issue that never really garnered the attention it truly deserved.
As we saw in several nations in the Middle East during the Arab Spring, social media has proved to be an instrumental tool in motivating public support for a destitute segment of the population. Now it has done the same for the Idle No More movement, which originally began as opposition to Bill C-45 and attempted to protect the sovereignty of waterways that passed through Indigenous lands; but it has grown into something much larger, and has worked to shine a spotlight on Aboriginal issues across the board. There is certainly no shortage of grievances for Aboriginal people to cite. They are plagued by a multitude of social problems, both in urban centers and on reserves. According to Amnesty International, Canadian Aboriginal women are five to seven times more likely to die as a result of violence than non-Aboriginal women. On many reserves across Canada, infrastructure is in an abys-
mal state, leaving many Aboriginals to live in housing that is dilapidated and overcrowded, and sometimes even without running water. And one need look no further than downtown Winnipeg to see the plight of Aboriginals in urban centres, where they make up a disturbingly large percentage of Winnipeggers who live in poverty, and of those who suffer from substance abuse problems. And while all these issues have more recently come to the public’s attention, there is something just as disquieting that has come more fully to light as well: the inherent, almost casual, racism towards Aboriginals that is shared by a shameful amount of Canadians. Online message boards are routinely flooded with hateful vitriol posted by anonymous antiactivists. The Morris Mirror newspaper published a myopic editorial that basically blamed Aboriginals for all their own problems, and although the paper did eventually apologize for their comments, they also received and published many letters from readers who supported their original ignorant position. Even Braydon Mazurkiewich, the former PC Youth President, was forced to resign from his position after some unenlightened comments he made on his Twitter account pertaining to
the sale of the Kapyong Barracks.
There are countless people across Canada who seem ready to forget the fact that we took this land out from under the feet of Aboriginal people to exploit it for our own purposes; some are quick to dismiss atrocities like the residential school system just because it all happened before we were born. So many of us are ready to dismiss the sins of our forbearers, but are all too eager to reap the benefits those sins have brought us.
Some Aboriginal activists have taken to engaging in acts of civil disobedience like blocking traffic or railways, and even those who would generally consider themselves tolerant of Aboriginals and sympathetic to the issues facing them have been muttering about the inconvenience of it all. They seem to not realize that the Aboriginal people make up a significant portion of our population, and a significant portion of those Aboriginals are young, impoverished, and feeling very disenfranchised. In many other parts of the world, that is not just a recipe for discontent, but a recipe for a revolution. Canadians should feel lucky that we have experienced a ubiquitously peaceful movement so far.
There’s no denying that, as a nation, Canada has been mak-
Keep calm and marry on!
Marriage equality becoming a reality in Britain
ch Ris h e ARn, volunteer staff
Congratulations to England!
You are now one step closer to joining the growing club of countries that officially recognize samesex marriage.
An initial vote in Britain’s House of Commons ended with 400 MPs supporting and 175 not supporting the idea, many of them being Tory MPs going against their party and their leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, in their independent vote. As always, this topic proved divisive in Britain as it does everywhere. The usual anti-same-sex marriage arguments (and often quite homophobic statements) are put forth by social and religious conservatives who warn of dangerous consequences with fire and brimstone speeches on the danger of allowing same-sex marriage and the horrible slippery slope that the country will descend down.
Some arguments include the ever popular statement: “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” Of course it is, unless you are in a country where it is between a man and up to
four women. Then, it isn’t a marriage between a man and a woman, and it’s very clear that marriage has been open to interpretation since the first person decided getting married was a good idea.
Religion often enters into the debate, with the dire warnings from the Church of England and
What we have now is a country and culture where more people are able to share in the beauty that is marriage.
the Catholic Church being thrust forward here. To some, the idea that people of the same gender would want to marry is seen as an affront to god. Apparently when god cre-
ated LGBT people, he did so without intending them to be happy or to live rich and fulfilling lives where they are free to love, be loved, and follow their dreams. He’s a funny god, that god. I look at Canada, and although I am not an overly nationalistic person, I can proudly hold my head up knowing that we have marriage equality here. And guess what? No lakes of fire. The sky has not fallen. We have not experienced a wrath. Our crops have not been destroyed by plagues of locusts. We have not descended into chaos and anarchy. Rather, what we have now is a country and culture where more people are able to share in the beauty that is marriage. We celebrate diversity in love, accepting that the tired old idea of “one man and one woman” is just that: tired and old.
To all those eagerly awaiting changes in British laws, I say congratulations on this progress, and I have my fingers crossed that you too will soon be able to experience equality in marriage!
ing positive strides on Aboriginal issues, such as through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and by paying reparations to residential school survivors. But these are simply acknowledgements of the mistakes our nation has made in the past and ways of making amends from them. What are we doing to ease the plight of current and future Aboriginals?
Of course, there is no one simple solution. As Henry Mencken says, “for every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” But one step in the right direction is through resource and revenue sharing. Rather than Aboriginal people being opposition to development of resource harvesting on their lands, bring them on as partners, like Stornoway Diamond Corp. did at Quebec’s only diamond mine. More than half of the 850 employees there are Cree, and the Cree leaders are kept fully appraised of the mine’s costs and financial projections. It’s not a fix-all solution by any means, but it certainly seems like a way that Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals can begin moving forward hand-in-hand, instead of ceaselessly butting heads.
And indeed, while many Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals
are embracing this attitude of resource and revenue sharing, this step towards economic partnership, there’s something underlying that troubles me.
Though I do support the idea behind it, it’s also disheartening to me when I hear some First Nations leaders use terms like “our land” and “our resources” in the possessive tense. To my understanding, one of the reasons early European settlers were able to take advantage of Aboriginals was because the concept of owning the land they lived on was so foreign to them it was laughable. The relationship that they had with the Earth was more symbiotic; it was not one of exploitation, but of harmony. One could not claim the land for their own any more than you could claim your neighbour’s right arm. I believe that if First Nations peoples are going to thrive in this modern world, it is necessary for them to engage in the field of Western style capitalism and talk in terms of ownership and profit. I just hate that it feels like another shovel full of dirt is being heaped upon a pure and noble spirit that has been buried too deep as it is. I would hate to see that spirit forgotten altogether, even if it is in the name of progress.
Sunday Mass > 11am, Christ the King Chapel Weekday Mass > Tue-Fri 11:45am, Side Chapel
Volunteer musicians & singers are welcome for choir practice > 5:30pm Fridays, 10am Sundays
Co ee House > Mar 2
C ampus M inistr y
8:00pm | Fundraiser for students involved in spiritual & social justice activities.
Volunteer entertainers welcome.
Hanley Memorial Lecture Series > Mar 3-4
“A Teaching Church that Learns: The Art of Magisterium” presented by Gerard Mannion, PhD
For more information, contact:
Sr. Elaine Baete
204 474 9784 | ELAINE.BAETE@ad.umanitoba.ca
Fr. Michael Koryluk
204 474 8460 | korylukm@cc.umanitoba.ca
Eliude Cavalcante
204 474 8645 | cavalcan@cc.umanitoba.ca
A day in the life of an undergraduate researcher
Cell splitting
Last week we took our first dive into cell culture by experiencing media changes. This week, we’ll explore cell splitting.
J
ust as there are negative consequences to human overcrowding, so too are there with cellular overcrowding. Over time, if a flask of cells is allowed to grow undisturbed, the cells will grow until they merge together and become “confluent.” Cells reach a state of confluence when they fill the entire flask surface on which they grow, and have no further room to propagate. If the population of cells is not tended to quickly enough to separate the growing mass into smaller sub-populations, the cells (which are adherent) will stop growing, and may eventually die.
The neat thing about cancer cells (particularly the cell lines) is that they are immortalized, meaning that they are able to grow indefinitely. Theoretically, the same researcher(s) could perform cell culture on the same cancer cells for their entire career(s), passing that experiment and those cells onto the next generation
of cell-tenders, and so on. Of course, this is assuming that those first generation researchers don’t miss a day
in feeding the cells, assure that there is no bacterial or fungal contamination to harm the cells (which is not as
easy as it sounds), and are prepared to monitor the cells as though they were dependent infants who constantly required your time and attention.
Generally, cells are grown in the lab because they are required for experimental purposes, and they are split into increasing generations because large quantities of cells are required to carry out the experiment.
Over the span of several weeks, a single flask of cells can be maintained and split into several flasks, all of which may then be utilized for the designed experiment.
Cell splitting
Because we are working with human cells (cancerous cells in my case), safety precautions need to be followed. As such, much of my more sensitive work is performed within the confines of a biosafety cabinet (BSC) or “hood.”
As with the media changes discussed in last week’s “Day in the life,” the medium is drawn (or aspirated) out of the flask. A chemical called trypsin is then added, which disrupts the cells’ ability to adhere to surfaces, and so the cells fall right off the walls of the flask. There is a brief five-minute incubation period for trypsin to be effective, after which the trypsinized cells are pipetted from the flask and mixed with a fresh medium into a 15 millilitre (mL) tube.
Cell split amiss
While the process just described seems straightforward enough, there are many ways in which simple cell splitting can go wrong.
For instance, if you are not careful with your aspirator, you may accidentally suck out your cell pellet when removing the media after centrifugation. Your cells are gone, and if this was your stock solution, then you no longer have cells to work with.
Generally, a stock of cells is kept frozen at –80 Celsius (a temperature at which biological materials can be stored), so if a mishap like accidentally sucking out the test cells occurs in a given experiment, there is likely a reserve of this cell stock – on ice and at the ready.
Time, however, can never be recovered from such a mistake. Momentary lapses and fluke instances like this can set a researcher back weeks, depending on what stage the cells were oafishly and mistakenly aspirated, and how long it took for the cells to achieve that stage.
Another problem occasionally encountered in the lab is contamination. Most cell culture media use antibiotics, which kill bacteria. The problem with antibiotics is that you are never sure if they are affecting your experimental results.
The tube is then centrifuged, which means that it is spun around at extremely high velocities in a fancy machine. The purpose of this centrifugation is to compact all the dense cell material (called the pellet) to the bottom of the tube, and allow for the liquid portion (the supernatant) to be easily aspirated out of the tube. The pellet of cells is mixed into the fresh medium so that it becomes a homogeneous solution.
Simple things like touching your pipette to any surface and not realizing it, or even breathing onto your culture can contaminate the cells with copious amounts of microbes.
Once in the new medium, the cells can be transferred to a new T75 flask. This is done using a dilution (or cell splitting) method: placing the cells in various flasks of independent subpopulations. Common dilution proportions to work with are 1:5 and 1:10, in which one-fifth or one-tenth of the initial cell population is placed into a new flask where it may again undergo a period of growth (until it is time for the next splitting).
Contaminating cells is as easy as breathing. For this reason, certain researchers prefer to use culture media that do not contain any antibiotics. Simple things like touching your pipette to any surface and not realizing it, or even breathing onto your culture can contaminate the cells with copious amounts of microbes. Since human cells are incubated at –37 C to mimic body conditions, it provides the perfect environment for bacteria to grow: an ideal temperature and plenty of nutrients. In this way, your entire flask of cells can become contaminated overnight and leave your experiment in ruins, as the cells would no longer be considered useable.
When all perils are avoided and the cells are successfully split and grown to the amount required, experimentation can finally begin.
In next week’s “Day in the life”: treating cells with drugs.
19 93 19
Things you may have missed twenty years ago Things you may have missed twenty years ago
It’s a funny thing, time; one day you’re enjoying your blessedly simple existence eating dirt and pooping your pants, the next you're hurriedly completing assignments and punching a clock so you can scrounge enough money to pay rent. This is the difference 20 years can make in someone’s life – you can go from completely dependent to completely responsible in two short decades. Births, deaths, fads, movements, overwhelming successes, unprecedented failures: all of these will grow, crest, then fade over the span of a vicennium (fancy word alert).
It is with this sense of maudlin nostalgia for the past that we’ve decided to look back exactly 20 years to 1993, in an effort to both commemorate our recent history and attempt to pinpoint just how much our world has changed since this one year in the early nineties.
In order to kick start this time-travel project, I’d like to start us off with a short list of things to experience, read, watch, listen to, whatever, so that you might say that you plunged yourself deep into the year that was 1993. Read on, friends!
1. The continuing rise of “alternative” music
At the time, most mainstream media outlets were calling this the “grunge” movement. In retrospect, very few who were actually involved in it could actually tell you what grunge meant, or why the term became so popular.
In essence, what people were talking about was an emerging alternative to the polished dance hits that had been dominating the music charts for years on end. Both the sound and the aesthetic behind it were dirtier, more organic than anything you could find on a Janet Jackson album. Among the most popular releases associated with this movement in ’93 were Nirvana’s In Utero and Pearl Jam’s second album Vs
By the mid-nineties, “grunge” was on the decline, but had paved the way for acts like Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins to capture more mainstream spotlight than might have previously ever been possible.
2. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
If you were a child in 1993 then there is simply no way the debut of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) didn’t knock your socks off.
The show was basically a live-action version of a Saturday morning Voltron cartoon, where a team of high-schoolers-turned-superheroes would karate fight intergalactic bad guys and Godzilla monsters. They had swords, laser guns, dinosaur-themed vehicles, and their own super secret headquarters equipped with a robotbutler. The original MMPR only lasted three seasons, but each of those seasons were ridiculously jam-packed with viewing content – to the point where the cast and crew had produced a total of 145 episodes in little more than 36 months.
Many twenty-somethings will still tell you today that the green ranger saga both rocked their belief system and altered the way they see the world forevermore.
3. Changing of the guard in Canadian politics
There are many reasons why 1993 was a historic year for Canadian politics; some of them are worth celebrating, others are not.
First, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced his retirement from politics following widespread criticism of his time in office. By ’93, Mulroney’s approval rating had reached record lows (at worst dropping to 11 per cent), making him one of the least popular leaders in Canadian history and prompting many to predict a devastating loss in the upcoming general election. Mulroney handed the office to fellow party member
Kim Campbell, who became the first ever female Prime Minister.
Unfortunately for Campbell, Mulroney passed the title a short two and a half months before the election, all but assuring a sweeping defeat at the hands of the Liberal Party and Jean Chrétien. The Progressive Conservative party, until then under the leadership of Mulroney, lost approximately 99 per cent of their seats, going from 151 to two. Chrétien would become the 20th Prime Minister of Canada, following Campbell’s brief stint as the 19th.
4. Selanne breaks the rookie record
Teemu Selanne was selected 10th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft but it wasn’t until the 1992/93 season that the Finnish import travelled to Canada to light the league on fire.
Selanne was an instant all-star in his first year with the Jets, piling up goals and points at a rate that had never been seen before from a rookie in the NHL. The first-year Jet would score a total of 76 goals by the end of the regular season, shattering the previous record for a rookie of 53 set by Mike Bossy. Selanne also set the single season rookie record for points with 132; this, along with the goal mark, still stands today.
The game in which Selanne broke the goal record has since gone down as one of the most memorable home games in Winnipeg history. The Finnish Flash scored his second of the game against the visiting Quebec Nordiques to tie Bossy’s record, then completed his night with a hat trick goal to surge past the old mark, capping the feat with one of the most iconic goal scoring celebrations ever. Selanne tossed up his right hand glove and used his turned-around stick to mime shooting it out of the air. Amazing.
RyA n hARby, staff
The Backstreet Boys: where are they now?
Boy band stereotypes fulfilled
R Achel Wood, staff
In 1993, the world was blessed with the formation of the devilishly handsome, hip-thrusting, coordinatedoutfit-wearing, and constantly gyrating boy band: the Backstreet Boys (BSB).
The New Kids on the Block had dominated the boy band world for most of the late 80s, but a new breed of young male singers were beginning to emerge just as Joey, Jonathan, Jordan, Danny, and Donnie were on their way out the door.
Search the quintet on the interweb and you’ll discover many Angelfire sites made in the golden era of boy bands. According to a super reliable-looking fan website, the Backstreet Boys were formed in the early 90s through a casting call by Lou Pearlman, who was eventually discredited and is now serving 25 years in jail for conspiracy and money laundering.
In 1993, the band had their first major performance at SeaWorld in Orlando. Thus began years of obsession for the majority of North American teen girls and I was in the thick of it. Maybe it was A.J.’s perfectly-shaped goatee or the way Brian longingly reached out while singing perfect harmonies that had millions of young girls and boys consumed.
Now, as an adult, I have taken the time to examine where these talented gentlemen are 20 years later:
Nick Carter
The youngest member of the group has had a rocky go of things since the peak of his popularity. He has dabbled in acting, making appearances on incredibly creditable and respected shows such as 8 Simple Rules Carter also fulfilled a child star stereotype when he entered rehab in 2005 after being charged with a DUI. It wasn’t until the sad attempt at a reality show, House
of Carters, that his semi-popularity rose again, mostly due to the pure dysfunction within his family.
Brian Littrell
Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but Littrell has since settled down and, according to the paparazzi pictures that I poured over, is living an idyllic life with his model wife, Leighanne Wallace, and son Baylee. Brian also tapped into the Christian music scene and was a hit, although I’m not too sure how he had time to record an album while brainstorming ways to misspell the name “Bailey” before the birth of his son.
Kevin Richardson
The oldest and most understated member of the Backstreet Boys deserted the group in 2006 because he had bigger and better things to do. He came crawling back in 2011 after, I can only assume, he realized that there were little opportunities for someone whose only experience was working at Disney World as Aladdin and singing in a boy band. He then joined the tour shared between BSB and New Kids on the Block.
Howie Dorough
This ballet-dancing heartthrob ventured into the business world when he started a management company, 3 Street Management. He married girlfriend Leigh Boniello and had one child named James. Besides a solo attempt and some impressive humanitarian efforts, Dorough has been up to nothing else really worth mentioning. Shocker…
A.J. McLean
I saved the best for last, obviously. This badass has
been incredibly active on his Instagram, which I follow religiously. If you filter out his Instagram presence, however, his career has fizzled. An attempted solo tour and a few stints in rehab prove that McLean is just a former boy band member trying to ride on his early millennium popularity.
Despite all this, the boy band is still desperately trying to hold onto their fading success through ventures such as Backstreet Boys Cruise, a painful performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in December, 2012, and a new album and world tour on their official 20th anniversary: April 20, 2013.
The best part? A documentary film on the band will be released in 2014 and we can only hope that it will have the same professionalism and substance as House of Carters
20 years later, girl me
20 years later, girl me ets Boy Meets
World
S
ept. 24, 1993 was the day the world met the boy: loveable Cory Matthews. Cory and his family and friends, including the troubled best friend Shawn Hunter, the know-it-all with a wacky name Topanga, and the wise next-door neighbour/beloved teacher Mr. Feeny entertained television audiences for seven seasons.
Boy Meets World became a regular at the height of ABC’s TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) lineup, occupying a Friday night timeslot on the network for the show’s entire run. The sitcom joined the rotation with other favourites like Family Matters and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I certainly remember watching the show with my family in elementary school; TGIF television nights always managed to start the weekend off on the right foot.
I think this is the exact reason why the show was such a success: it was something families could watch together. It was funny and heartwarming, and was never overly sexual or inappropriate for younger children. More than that, the characters were relatable. Audiences sympathized with Cory and his status as an average student. He wasn’t the Brad Pitt or Albert Einstein of his school, but he was certainly funny, charming, and sincere.
Discussing the show, executive producer Michael Jacobs has been quoted as saying that the show represented the “natural experience of actually growing up.”
Boy Meets World first aired twenty years ago, but the show still has a dedicated following, never really leaving the air even after production had stopped.
“It ran on Disney Channel, it ran on ABC Family, it’s running on MTV2, you can turn on the television any time of day and catch an episode. There has to be a realization that the public does want this type of honest show or at least the aspiration to be honest in its characters,” Jacobs told the Hollywood Reporter
If you were a fan of the program, you’ll be happy to hear that there is a spin-off in the works. Yes, you read that correctly, the much-loved characters are about to return to the small screen with a new show called Girl Meets World. The sitcom will revolve around Cory and Topanga’s daughter, Riley Matthews, and her adolescent exploits. While it will in many ways be an homage to Boy Meets World, it will also stand on its own two feet as a contemporary show.
Jacobs explains that a lot has changed during the past twenty years in regards to growing up, so ignoring these new challenges would do a disservice to this new generation. The need for honesty and realism on television seems to be even more important now than it was back in 1993.
Jacobs stated that Riley is just going to be “a girl who
is going to aspire to put one foot in front of the other and to try and understand the confusion that is her life.”
This will not take place on the upper-east side, in a performing arts school, or with a 90210 zip code – as are many of the current depictions of middle-schoolers and teens on television these days.
Ben Savage (Cory) and Danielle Fishel (Topanga) have already officially agreed to reprise the roles that made them famous. Jacobs has stated that previous cast members are also invited back: “[whoever] wants to be part of this show will be and whoever wants to move on will.”
Boy Meets World definitely embodied the sensibilities of the 90s. Will the second time around also charm audiences and represent the 21st century family? I guess we’ll just have to wait and watch!
ILLUstRatIONs by sILVaNa mORaN
10 songs from 1993
The 5 best, and 5 that make us thankful it’s not ‘93 anymore
ARynne Mc Mu RRAy, staff
For most music fans, the early 90s are a mixture of the good, great, and regrettable. The Billboard Hot 100 from 1993 is populated with many names that we should be glad never made it to the present decade with us. However, mixed in there with the stonewashed denim, club beats, and neon were a number of great artists releasing songs that made it a year in music worth remembering.
Here are my picks for the five best songs released in 1993:
“Alison” by Slowdive
It’s been a while since the release of “Alison,” but the song could fit easily into any great present-day playlist. The washed out guitar and vocals that are the trademark of the shoegaze genre make this song enveloping and almost asphyxiating, drawing you in to Slowdive’s sad vision of reality. With lyrics detailing a dysfunctional relationship between two drug users, this song offers a good dose of real life that seemed so absent from much of popular 90s music.
“Today” by Smashing Pumpkins
According to the now defunct music website Stylus, “nothing can make ‘Today’ sound fresh again;” they attributed this to heavy MTV and radio airplay. Luckily for those of us who weren’t cognizant enough in 1993 to spend our time listening (or over-listening) to the Smashing Pumpkins, “Today” still does sound fresh, both in its own context and 20 years later. Moreover, the fact that industry executives promoted this song illustrates an appreciation for well-crafted music that was largely missing in the year of its release. The song’s blasting, upbeat guitar riffs and positive chorus contrast with the delicate and depressing lyrical content of the rest of the song. Ultimately, this is a song we should be glad to remember 1993 for.
“For Tomorrow” by Blur
Although they toured the United States to support Modern Life is Rubbish, the album that “For Tomorrow” appeared on, Blur was left feeling negative about the whole experience because North America never truly embraced the band. Many people have enjoyed Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s other project, Gorillaz, so it’s too bad that Blur and this song didn’t enjoy greater success. Eschewing the grunge aesthetic that dominated much of the early part of the decade, this song is unabashedly melodic, British, and easily one of the best of the year.
“Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star
Last year was slated to be the first time in 16 years that Mazzy Star would release new work, which unfortunately never materialized. Instead, fans will have to console themselves with the duo’s earlier work, including the 1993 album So Tonight That I Might See, of which “Fade Into You” was the lead single. The song is slow, sad, haunting, and proved to be the group’s most enduring hit.
“Creep” by Radiohead
Over the years, Radiohead has taken their fans in a number of different musical directions. This single predates the band’s electronic experimentation, and could likely hook even the most straightforward rock and roll fan. In fact, early show attendees liked the song so much that they were often indifferent to the rest of the band’s catalogue, and Radiohead played “Creep” less frequently as the decade went on. However, the song is still a fan favourite, and the distorted guitar, especially leading up to the chorus, paired with lead singer Thom Yorke’s pained lyrics, makes this song immediately affecting and memorable.
And here are my picks for the five songs that make me glad 1993 is long behind us:
“Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team
Party people, don’t deny it – you loved this one. Perfect for basketball video montages everywhere, this feel-good hit originated in Miami. Besides the overall dated feel of this song, it’s undeniably very catchy. One thing we can take away from this song: if you’re ever stuck for song lyrics, take a cue from Tag Team and throw a few “shakalakas” in there.
“Informer” by Snow
If you managed to avoid Snow in the 90s, consider yourself lucky. “Informer,” which reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, was written and performed by Darrin Kenneth O’Brien, the Toronto-born reggae artist also known as Snow. It features such deep and introspective lyrics as “you know say daddy Snow me [ . . . ] a licky boom-boom down.” Enough said.
“Dreamlover” by Mariah Carey
Not unlike the high-waisted jean shorts featured in the video for this song, Mariah Carey has experienced a comeback in recent years. As part of the American Idol judging panel, she helps aspiring artists across the nation master their multi-octave runs. This type of oversinging, which is Carey’s signature, is exactly what detracts from this song. Although she has good control of her voice, the simplistic musical arrangement and breathy vocal work does nothing to add any substance, and the track ultimately falls flat.
“What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes
If you’re having trouble clearly recalling 1993 (and the bad fashion that went along with it) frontwoman Linda Perry’s bathrobe and goggle ensemble in the video for this song will definitely do the trick. The band should be given kudos for being an alternative to their 90s girl group contemporaries (Spice Girls, I’m looking at you). However, this song’s engineered sound, along with Perry’s grating vocals, make this a poor alternative to Top 40. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Perry herself seems to feel the project hasn’t aged well, admitting, “I wasn’t really a big fan of my band.”
“Forever in Love” by Kenny G
Two words: “smooth jazz.” No, wait, two more: “adult contemporary.” Since 1993, this song has been heard in countless elevators in nondescript office buildings everywhere. Although it can’t be argued that this saxophonist has his technique down pat—he must, given he’s the top-selling instrumental artist in modern times—his songs come off a tad schmaltzy in 2013. The gentle, inoffensive piano paired with multiple overwrought sax solos is enough to make any elevator ride feel far too long.
Meet the new boss
’93 sees
Clinton inaugurated as president, ending Republican streak
The name first appeared on a ballot for public office in 1974 during an election for Congress in Arkansas’
Third District, but it didn’t receive enough ticks to win. Before that it had made its rounds in student elections at Georgetown University.
The name has endured scandal and public opinion and, since, has seemed to become increasingly revered each year, but before it could become a household name people had to learn it – and they did during the 52nd United States presidential election in 1992 when the world was introduced to Bill Clinton.
After 12 years of a Republican government, which had won in consecutive landslides over the previous three elections, Clinton’s victory in both the popular and electoral vote ushered the Democrats back into power, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush, and securing Clinton’s place in history as the 42nd President of the United States.
Clinton was officially inaugurated in 1993 on Jan. 20, and, along with running mate Al Gore, began leading the Clinton administration through two terms, ending in 2001 amidst the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Clinton came into power at a time when the economy was just coming out of a recession and still caught in a serious deficit. Part of his campaign platform was built on assuring voters that he would restore the economy and reverse the recession.
To keep his promises Clinton signed into action the controversial Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which every Republican voted against. Among other things, the act increased taxes for the top 1.2 per cent, but cut taxes for 15 million low-income families.
Notable Dea ths of 1993
Audrey Hepburn
Date of birth: May 4, 1929
Date of death: January 20, 1993 (63 years old)
Cause of death: Appendix cancer
Occupation: Actress and philanthropist
Famously known for: Her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and her elegant style, which is still recognized today.
Thurgood Marshall
Date of birth: July 2, 1908
Date of death: January 24, 1993 (84 years old)
Cause of death: Heart failure
Occupation: Supreme Court justice and civil rights
activist
Famously known for: His role in abolishing legal segregation in America and becoming the first AfricanAmerican Supreme Court justice.
Andre “the Giant” Roussimoff
Date of birth: May 19, 1946
Date of death: January 27, 1993 (46 years old)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Occupation: Professional wrestler and actor
Famously known for: Wrestling in the WWE (formerly WWF) and playing Fezzik in the Princess Bride
Brandon Lee
Date of birth: February 1, 1965
Date of death: March 31, 1993 (28 years old)
Cause of death: Accidental gunshot wound
Occupation: Actor
Famously known for: Playing Eric Draven in The Crow, the film in which he was shot by a bullet meant to have been a blank in one of the movie’s final scenes.
Conway Twitty
Date of birth: September 1, 1933
Date of death: June 5, 1993 (59 years old)
Cause of death: Ruptured blood vessel
Occupation: Singer and songwriter
Famously known for: His rock and country music.
Pat Nixon
Date of birth: March 16, 1912
Date of death: June 22, 1993 (81 years old)
Cause of death: Lung cancer
Occupation: U.S. First Lady, activist, and political leader
Famously known for: Her public image, as the wife of Richard Nixon during his time as Senator, Vice President, and 37th U.S. President.
Kath Walker
Date of birth: November 3, 1920
Date of death: September 16, 1993 (72 years old)
Cause of death: Cancer
Occupation: Activist, journalist, poet, and author Famously known for: Her activism on Australian Aboriginal rights and her published works.
Vincent Price
Date of birth: May 27, 1911
Date of death: October 25, 1993 (82 years old)
Cause of death: Lung cancer
In 1993, Clinton also established the policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), which was recently repealed by the Obama administration. Prior to DADT the U.S. military explicitly banned gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving, and so during the 1992 election all the Democratic hopefuls supported the removal of the ban.
As the policy’s name hints, DADT allowed for gays and lesbians to serve so long as they kept their orientation to themselves. Furthermore, DADT prohibited the military from prying into the personal lives of military personnel. However, it did not protect openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from being discriminated against, as they were still banned from serving.
Clinton received heat from both sides in regards to DADT, because gay rights activists didn’t feel DADT was doing enough, while of course those against DADT felt it would compromise the military.
1993 also saw Clinton ratify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is a trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
While NAFTA was the pet project of Clinton’s predecessor, and the heads of each state had already signed the agreement in 1992, it still had to be passed into law in each nation. Bush had hoped to have it wrapped up before he vacated office, but this didn’t pan out, and so it was up to Clinton to see it through.
Clinton modified the agreement with clauses to better serve American interests, while also introducing environmental regulations and guidelines, and then saw it ratified in 1993 so that it could take effect on Jan. 1 of the following year.
Clinton made a huge splash when he became POTUS (President of the United States) in 1993, and items he oversaw during his first year in office are still active today, while others like DADT are now defunct.
Many of today’s youth will likely remember Bill Clinton as one of the presidents they saw on the Simpsons, maybe even as the guy who played saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show. One thing that’s certain is 1993 introduced us to the Clinton family and, in the continuing works of both Bill and his wife, former Secretary of State, Hillary, theirs is a legacy still being written.
Occupation: Actor
Famously known for: His many horror roles on both television and film, as well as his narrative voice, which can be heard in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
River Phoenix
Date of birth: August 23, 1970
Date of death: October 31, 1993 (23 years old)
Cause of death: Drug overdose
Occupation: Actor and activist
Famously known for: Starring in Stand by Me as Chris Chambers.
Frank Zappa
Date of birth: December 21, 1940
Date of death: December 4, 1993 (52 years old)
Cause of death: Prostate cancer
Occupation: Guitarist, songwriter, music producer, and director
Famously known for: His unique and diverse music style.
A ichelle sAyuno, staff
ILLUstRatIONs by sILVaNa mORaN
Free Willy
’93 film propels anti-captivity movement
cARlyn schellenbe Rg, staff
Courtesy of Warner Bros., Free Willy entered theatres on July 16, 1993, and quickly warmed the hearts of millions. In the film we meet Jesse as an abandoned, troubled 12-year-old boy with no home or real family. We meet Willy (Keiko) as he is yanked out of his familial waters and crammed into a small tank to begin his career in public entertainment. Marketed as an unlikely friendship between a killer whale and a “street kid,” this film made all of us believe that we too could form a bond with these gigantic creatures.
Although Free Willy is a family movie, its implications generated concerned reactions from the public. For anti-captivity activists, it may have been the best thing to come out of 1993. The film brought issues to the attention of a wider audience, and fueled a battle that began when the first orca was captured in 1961. Twenty years later, the film’s narrative is just as real and requires just as much attention.
While Jesse cleans up the theme park he had vandalized after being placed in a foster home, Rae, the trainer, teaches him to train Willy. The narrative unfolds as the water park owners attempt to kill Willy for the insurance money, and Rae, Jesse, and his new friend Randolph transfer Willy from the park to the ocean, driving miles to reunite him with his family. As the park owners try to stop them from backing that truck into the water, every viewer in America practically waded into the
water with Jesse, cheering as that animatronic whale jumped in slow motion over the rock wall, sprinkling us with fresh sea water.
As David Kirby highlights in Death at SeaWorld, the release of the film sparked a battle between SeaWorld and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Activists from the HSUS used the press of the film as an opportunity to emphasize that whales have no place in captivity. SeaWorld disliked the film and denied that Willy’s narrative was anything like those of the whales in captivity.
This fight continued for years and, since there are still whales in captivity, it is long from over. But among this disagreement, there was a much bigger life at stake: Keiko’s. Keiko had been taken captive from Iceland at a young age, and his eventual release as the first orca to return home mirrors Willy’s.
As the credits appear in front of a video of whales frolicking in the wild, a note says, “You can personally help save the whales of the world by calling 1-800-4WHALES.” This number was called by millions who wanted the real-life Willy to be freed, and a plethora of donations were collected. This, along with Keiko’s new star status, led to various organizations and activists fighting to free Keiko, who was trapped in a hot, chlorinated pool at an amusement park in Mexico City. He was moved to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996
to improve his living conditions. He was then brought to a netted sea-pen in Iceland in 1998, and in 2002, Keiko was fully released into the wild, though he still experienced occasional supervision.
From having lived so long in captivity, Keiko loved people, and would often swim near the shore. In 2003, though, he swam immensely far, ending up in Norway, where he took his last breath. He is assumed to have died from pneumonia, and lived one of the longest lives of orcas in captivity.
The Keiko/Willy story is an emblem of all the whales that have yet to be freed; until the last whale is released from captivity, we have not yet freed Willy.
From Mosaic to Mozilla
Before Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or even Internet Explorer, there was NCSA Mosaic, commonly referred to as just Mosaic. The NCSA acronym stood for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which is located at the University of Illinois. It was here that co-founder Marc Andreessen found himself in 1993, as he launched the web browser that would introduce the Internet to the general public.
Today, Marc Andreessen is a titan in the tech industry. He sits on the board of directors for companies like eBay and Facebook, but in the early 90s he was just a college student fascinated by the Internet and unimpressed by the browsers of the time.
After switching out of electrical engineering because he wasn’t doing well, Andreessen decided to major in computer science, a subject he had taken interest in at a young age – he taught himself BASIC programming at the age of nine.
It was after this switch, in 1992 at the age of 21, that Andreessen conceived the idea for Mosaic. He partnered up with Eric Bina, a programmer at the NCSA, and
gathered a team to create it. Andreessen eventually went on to found Mosaic Communications, which would become Netscape Communications – yes, that Netscape.
Mosaic wasn’t the world’s first web browser—far from it, actually—but it was ground-breaking nonetheless, because it brought together features offered by various browsers while innovating the entire concept of web browsing.
Web browsers before Mosaic presented information in text form only. Multimedia did exist, but it was accessed via links that opened up in a new window.
Mosaic integrated text and multimedia so that everything could be arranged on one page, and it did this all in colour.
This piecing together of different features to create a final product, as well as the ability to render it all in colour, inspired Mosaic’s name to highlight the browser’s similarities with the art technique.
Mosaic was so radical that even current browsers borrow cues from it, like the navigation menu’s back and forward buttons.
According to the NCSA website, shortly after Mosaic was released it was downloaded about 5,000 times per month, and won a slew of awards that appreciated its impact on the tech industry as well as what it did for
telecommunications.
1993 proved to be a very productive year for Andreessen, because hot on the heels of NCSA Mosaic’s success and inspired by James H. Clark—another Silicon Valley celebrity—Andreessen left the NCSA to found the business venture Mosaic Communications.
Andreessen brought with him some of the team that worked on the NCSA project, and one year later the company’s first product called Mosaic Netscape 0.9 was released. Months later an updated version called Netscape Navigator followed.
Both products were major successes that dwarfed NCSA Mosaic, and unfortunately this led to a dispute with the University of Illinois over the Mosaic trademark, forcing Mosaic Communications to become Netscape Communications.
The company’s success also caught the attention of Microsoft, which tried to buy Netscape Communications, and when this failed developed Internet Explorer, inciting the first-ever browser war.
In the proceeding years, Netscape was slowly annihilated by Internet Explorer and eventually bought by AOL in 1998 for US $4.2 billion, where it remains as a largely defunct intellectual property.
1998 also saw Netscape’s source code released, and the code served as the foundation for Mozilla Firefox.
In fact, “Mozilla” was originally the code name for Netscape Navigator, and the reptilian mascot can be found throughout the Mosaic Communications’ website.
If you would like to see an original artefact from the Internet’s history, check out the Mosaic Communications’ website that is still accessible at: http://home.mcom.com.
The modern web browser’s journey
ILLUstRatIONs by sILVaNa mORaN
RAW is WAR
How the WWF changed the business side of pro wrestling in 1993
M ARc lAg Ace, staff
Whether or not you’re a fan of professional wrestling, there’s no denying the sustained popularity that the World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation) has enjoyed over the past three decades. The WWF first began its rise to becoming a global juggernaut when Vincent K. McMahon—son of Vincent J. McMahon— decided to secede from professional wrestling’s established territory-based business model and spread nationwide back in the mid-eighties.
But it wasn’t until 1993 that McMahon and the WWF would forever change the way fans would tune in to follow their favourite professional wrestlers. Regional wrestling promotions had used cable television to broadcast pre-recorded shows before 1993, but McMahon took the formula and revolutionized the entire industry.
When WWF Monday Night Raw debuted on Jan. 11, 1993 on the USA Network, so began a remarkable run of over 1,000 weekly episodes of programming, setting the record as the longest-running weekly episodic program in television history.
Unlike the wrestling programs on television that had come before it, Raw was recorded and aired for a live audience, with the promos and “breaking” storylines recorded during the same broadcast.
Wars were awesome, as both the WCW and WWF pulled out all the stops to attract the bigger audience each week.
By 1997, WCW Nitro had overtaken Monday Night Raw in the ratings war, largely due to the Hulk Hogan-led nWo storyline angle. This incited perhaps the biggest and most important shift in the WWF’s history: the move towards controversial storylines and angles that has come to be known as the “Attitude Era.”
Things began to sway back in Raw ’s favour around the time of the “Montreal Screwjob incident,” in which McMahon jobbed Bret Hart out of the WWF Championship. The incident set up McMahon’s feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, as the WWF CEO shifted from a role as sideline commentator to portray an egomaniacal corporate character. Austin played the role of the swearing, beer swilling, redneck badass, and the ever-present thorn in the McMahon family business.
Audiences lapped it up. On April 13, 1998, Raw aired a match that pit McMahon against Austin that finally broke the WCW’s 84-week stretch of ratings domination. The Attitude Era also helped to raise talented performers like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple H, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Mick Foley into worldwide household names.
The first time LucasArts invited you to join the Rebel Alliance
Star Wars: X-Wing, the first LucasArts video game based on the popular movie series, debuted in 1993. Set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the game put you in the pilot’s seat of an X-wing fighter going up against the dreaded Galactic Empire. I didn’t begin to play it until a few years after it came out, but considering it has been 20 years since it was released, I figure it’s fair to give it some thought.
The thing I enjoyed most about playing X-Wing was the sense of openness and possibility. It seems strange to see that in a video game, especially one from so many years ago, there was a clear effort on the part of the designers to create a nonlinear feeling.
For example, you could continue flying for as long as you wanted, getting further and further away from the main objectives. If you flew for two hours, it would take you a full two hours to get back. The game conveyed the vastness and desolation of space, something that is rarely done in games today.
Additionally, the game involved strategic decision making. This may not seem likely since it was a space combat game, but it wasn’t a button masher – some thinking was definitely involved. You had to select how much power to allocate to shields, lasers, and engines. Devote power to one, and you had less for the others. The game was surprisingly deep, especially for its time.
Another aspect that made X-Wing so great was that it ensured its entertainment value was based on the fact it focused on gameplay, rather than a few big cinematic moments or a shocking story. Back in 1993, graphical capabilities were obviously much less impressive than they are now. So, to create an entertaining game, designers had to strengthen the gameplay itself, since they couldn’t fall back on big flashy graphics.
Of course, not everything was perfect. The fact that your ship would stop moving if you shut off your engine doesn’t make much sense, but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the game. What the designers seemed to focus on was delivering a very simple yet consistent gameplay experience. The game was built around that, and I think this is why it holds up so well, even many years later.
For fans of the Star Wars universe I would still recommend checking out Star Wars: X-Wing. It has been slightly updated, and can likely be found either for free or a very low cost. It also inspired some follow-up games, like TIE Fighter (not ties fighting each other, mind you), X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars: X-Wing was an example of a simple concept being executed well, and 20 years from its debut, that’s something that is as important now as ever when it comes to enjoyable entertainment.
Filming took place on Monday and Tuesday evenings; the Monday night show filmed live to air and the Tuesday show was held over to air the following Monday night.
Monday Night Raw proved to be so successful that World Championship Wrestling—the other major professional wrestling promotion at the time—decided to debut a rival Monday night wrestling show to challenge Raw
Debuting in 1995, WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Monday Night Raw would battle for ratings throughout the remainder of the 90s in what would become known as the Monday Night Wars.
For young, impressionable fans in the 90s, the Monday Night
The two promotions would continue to battle for ratings supremacy through the remainder of the 90s, until Time Warner eventually sold the WCW to McMahon and the WWF in 2001. The end of the Monday Night Wars (and the World Wildlife Fund’s regained monopoly on the “WWF” trademark) meant that, going forward, the newly named WWE Raw and its Thursday program SmackDown could continue to gain momentum, more or less uncontested, through the early part of the 21st century. Today, WWE has turned professional wrestling (or sports entertainment, as they prefer to call it) into a publicly-traded entertainment company worth nearly US $400 million. Its popularity around the world continues to grow, as new generations of fans tune in weekly to watch today’s superstars continue the tradition that was set in motion 20 years ago.
Arts & Culture
A warm and welcoming environment
Winnipeg’s longest running GLBTTQ* beverage room closing and looking for new home
Jenn A d iubA ldo, staff
It’s no secret that Gio’s Club and Bar (Gio’s) has been experiencing financial troubles over the past few years, but recently Winnipeg’s longest running GLBTTQ* beverage room announced it would be closing its Smith Street location of 10 years, with plans to move to a new location in the near future.
Gio’s is an extension of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Society, Inc., a not-for-profit organization created with the purpose of benefiting the GLBTTTQ* community of Winnipeg.
The bar itself has been providing a warm and welcoming environment to its patrons since 1982 by offering a fun, relaxed, non-judgmental atmosphere regardless of sexuality or ethnicity.
[could] go there to dance, have a drink, or just hang out with your buds. A lot of good times were had at Gio’s.”
Given the current financial climate in our country and growing competition within the city, the financial future of Gio’s Club and Bar has been in question for some
Club and Bar,” reads a statement from the board of directors on the bar’s official website. “After 10 years at its 155 Smith Street venue in Winnipeg, Gio’s is closing that location on February 16, 2013.”
The release goes on to say that the club plans to carry on in this new location and is thankful for the continued support from customers and well-wishers alike.
“Gio’s [was] the first gay bar/club I went to, and I was comfortable being out and proud there right off the bat,” states Christine Berestin, a student at the University of Manitoba and steadfast customer of the Winnipeg institution. “You
time. The board of directors that governs Gio’s recently issued a statement saying it would be leaving its current location in search of a new venue.
“ The Oscar Wilde Memorial Society, Inc. wishes to announce to its members and supporters that a new home is being sought for Gio’s
“We are working with a commercial real estate agent and also request the community’s assistance in helping us find a new home for Gio’s. We want very much to continue our 30-year tradition of support, caring, and camaraderie in the GLBT* community.”
All the GLBTTQ* community can hope for is that Gio’s finds a new home quickly and continues to grow and prosper.
“ I hope to see Gio’s find another location that is just as comfortable as the Smith Street location was,” states Berestin.
Adding to tradition
What you can expect from Festival this year
Jodie lAyne, staff
“Find your place in history and then Instagram it” could very well be the new motto for the Festival du Voyageur.
The winter festival originated in 1969 as a way to honour the FrenchCanadian culture and history of St. Boniface, but also as a way to stimulate the city’s economy during the winter months when the community used to all but shut down. Although city-dwellers now embrace the winter months, the festival is a fixture of our city’s collective cultural memory, occurring annually once the cruelly cold month of January releases its grip on Winnipeg.
“It always seems to happen when you feel like the winter is never going to end,” says Irina Ivanov Bissonnette, marketing and communications director for the Festival.
Although it’s 43 years old, this year’s festival promises to be more relevant and hipper than ever.
“The staples are always there and tradition is a big part of it for us,” says Bissonnette. “But we do always try and keep it fresh to have something for everyone and engage new cultures and people of different ages.”
The programming this year makes sure to honour those old staples; the ice sculpture competition will bring competitors from 10 different countries, from Guatemala to Estonia, to create 20 sculptures inside the park. Bissonnette says that some of them have never seen snow, so they are partnered with Canadian sculptors who can teach them how to work with it.
This year will see the return of last year’s popular DJ Night, but will also feature an all-new lineup of the Devotion crew DJs and the Lytics. A poutine bar will be on hand, offering different selections of the favourite dish of modern voyageurs. Foodies can get their fill at the Top Chef-style pea soup cook-off with chefs from around the city trying to impress the celebrity judges with their interpretations
of a more classic French-Canadian dish.
While keeping things different means attracting new crowds, it also means attracting the same crowd by diversifying the programming from year to year. This year Festival is adding a new feature called “voyageur apprenticeships,” with demonstrations that will take place in Fort Gibraltar’s Historic Cabins. French and Metis artisans will teach interactive workshops and impart their knowledge and skills to a new generation. This includes crafting walking sticks, sash weaving, and alpaca woolbased crafts.
Bissonnette says that they try to stress that this is not only a celebration of French-Canadians who settled and colonized the region, but the Metis and First Nations people who were first on the land and played a large role in the founding of Manitoba. Louis Riel Day is one of the biggest days of programming for the park and always brings out some of the largest crowds. As a less reverent nod to the iconic Metis revolutionary, this will be the second year of the Louis Riel Look-a-like Contest.
“It’s really just about trying to make history fun and interactive so it’s more accessible to all kinds of people,” laughs Bissonnette. Whether you like to kick it classically with maple syrup, tobogganing, and jigging, or if you’re more into poutine and DJs, the festival will certainly make February a little more manageable.
For more information, check out festivalvoyageur.mb.ca.
phOtO by CINdy tItUs
phOtOs by daN haRpeR
Smutty Winnipeg Shorts
Provocative films just in time for Valentine’s Day
K Aty M AcKinnon, volunteer staff
This Valentine’s Day, Frame Arts Warehouse is showing a collection of provocative film work from the collective Open City Cinema, entitled Smutty Winnipeg Shorts. The collective was started by Aaron Zeghers, Travis Cole, and Scott Fitzpatrick and includes many Winnipeg artists.
Alison Davies is presenting and curating the program, which features many University of Manitoba graduates. Davies is an animator herself, and moved to Winnipeg after graduating from the University of
Concordia with a fine arts degree.
“Viewers can expect a really fun program that looks at ideas of lust, sex, and longing,” says Davies. “[The program includes a] striptease and frolicking naked people, but we also have work that explores desire in surprising ways.”
Film shorts from 14 artists will be shown.
Aaron Zeghers’ 40-second short to be played on Thursday is titled Blue Film1 ((missin you)). The film is part of a series focusing on the relationship between colours and human emotion.
Honouring Women
Zeghers describes a “blue film” as an early striptease film from around the 1930s.
“A certain longing and sadness is present in this short. Presenting another linguistic interpretation of blue: a sense of longing or sadness, hence the title ((missin you)),” says Zeghers.
Deco Dawson, a graduate of the University of Manitoba’s Black Hole Theatre Company, will also present a film at the event. Dawson created his first stage play at age 17, before he began to delve into the art of film. In 2012, Dawson won a $10,000 prize at the Toronto International Film Festival for Keep a Modest Head, which will be shown Thursday. The film short pays tribute to Jean Benoît.
“[Jean Benoît is] a man whose sexuality and sexual obsessions were integral to the work he made,” says Davies.
Winnipeg-based media artist Jaimz Asmundson has had his work featured in film festivals across the globe. The films he will be showing on Thursday are Carpet Cleaners and Liquid Lunch.
Asmundson’s films are not for the faint of heart. Carpet Cleaners, based on an ex-girlfriend of Asmundson’s, involves lesbian hitwomen and a story of revenge. Asmundson describes Liquid Lunch as the most disgusting film he’s ever made.
“[The porno features] probably the most epic cum-shot sequence in Winnipeg film history,” says Asmundson.
A dominatrix is the main charac-
ter of this film, who, instead of being submissive to the desires of men, plays the role of a torturer.
“This was my response to what I felt it would be like if seen through a dirty, hand-processed Super 8 lens,” says Asmundson. “I’m both embarrassed and proud of this film and still have no idea what motivated me to make this.”
University of Manitoba graduate Clint Enns will also be showing a film titled Debbie Does Ascii. Enns describes himself as an experimental filmmaker, attempting to push the boundaries of traditional genres. The film is an ASCII animation of a scene from the pornographic movie, Debbie Does Dallas.
will be layered throughout the film, alluring viewers into the screen.
Asmundson describes Liquid Lunch as the most disgusting film he’s ever made.
Freya Olafson is an artist who has developed through many disciplines, including six years of training with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. She has received numerous awards and scholarships, and is involved in curating as well as performing. Her current video work uses online content and screen capturing, focusing on the themes of identity and the Internet.
The video shown on Thursday will be CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome), which is part of Olafson’s series that explores how people use technology to form their identities. Desktop strippers and amorphous dancers
Noam Gonick is an artist from Winnipeg whose film, photography, television, and installation art explores issues and politics involved with a variety of topics, some of which include queer sexuality and prison architecture. Along with having his work presented at numerous film festivals internationally, Gonick was the recipient of the Manitoba Film Hothouse Award last year. The award recognizes Manitobans who have exhibited exceptional directing talent. Barb Hunt, another graduate of the University of Manitoba, has been an established artist since 1982. Her work takes a feminist perspective, currently focusing on death and mourning rituals.
Hunt’s film to be shown is called Can-D-Man. In the film, a woman fantasizes about a fellow co-worker at the Nutty Club Factory.
“[Viewers] will find my little video to be fun and perhaps a bit surreal,” says Hunt. “They will see that making pink candy can be sexy!”
Smutty Winnipeg Shorts takes place on Feb.14. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. at the Frame Arts Warehouse (Gallery C), with the films beginning at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $7.
The Girls Action Foundation’s ninth National Day of Action
Jodie lAyne, staff
R
oses, chocolate, fancy dinners, over-the-top lingerie, and overpriced, mass-produced jewelry in tiny boxes might be what you typically associate with Feb. 14. This Valentine’s Day, as with the eight before it, women and girls all over Canada will celebrate a different kind of day where empowerment, strength, solidarity, and feminism are the kind of things offered instead.
This year will be the Girls Action Foundation’s ninth National Day of Action and it will be celebrated with 30 community actions in a truly coastto-coast-to-coast love letter to women and girls, both in their community and nationwide. The actions this year are all over the map and the hands-on, community-led leadership approach offered by Girls Action allows them to reflect the groups leading them and the communities they work in.
“This Valentine’s Day [ . . . ] girls and young women across Canada are [ . . . ] shining a light on the people, places and things that can make a difference in the lives of women and society,” says Saman Ahsan, execu tive director of Girls Action Foundation.
In Winnipeg, the FemRev Collective is celebrating the day with the launch of their zine, Honouring Women
The project, which will feature 50 submissions from women around the world, takes a strength-based approach to honouring women and fighting back against both the blatant and passive sexism women experience every day. Collective member Sarah Martens says that she got the inspira tion for the project while travelling in Spain and when she brought it
to the Collective the reception was enthusiastic.
“We hear about terrible things going on to women around the world and to the women that we know, but it can be
talking about the strength and
resistance of ourselves and the women in our lives,” says Martens. So, together with Lissie Rappaport and Anna-Celestrya Carr, 95 submissions from West Broadway to Hong Kong have been sifted through and compiled into a zine that tells the stories of inspiring women and the revolutionary acts they commit every day. Some choices include a poem by celebrated spoken word artist Moe Clark, along with several comics, paintings, drawings, stories, and other creative expressions representing a celebration of women as a whole instead of the objectified pieces often portrayed
Martens wants the impact of the collected resistance and resilience of women worldwide to stick with the readers after putting down the zine.
“I want them to feel empowered and energized instead of defeated, and to realize that these are women we know or women like women we know,” says Martens. “We can see our own struggles and strength in them.”
The zine launch party will take place at Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art at 611 Main Street on Thursday, Feb. 14. Aside from being able to pick up a copy of Honouring Women , attendees will be treated to coffee, wine, and snacks as well as readings by contributors and music by Claire Morrison and Johsa Manzanilla.
Also participating in the National Day of Action is Winnipeg’s Laurel Centre, which will host a workshop for young women on the topic of feminism and the importance of International Women’s Day.
Kazzoshay, Smoky Tiger, and Merch Table Delite
dAV id sK ene, volunteer staff
While the isolation of winter in Winnipeg causes people to go mad, at least we’re free to follow our muses down whatever rabbit hole of strange, self-satisfaction we please. All you need to do is look at a list of Winnipeg expats and hot commodities—like Alpha Couple or This Hisses—to see that we are the breeding ground for some of the strangest of the strange. Here are a few of my favorite weirdos:
Kazzoshay
Dark, gothic, grinding madness.
A perfect blend of dark synthesizers, heavy riffs, bone-crunching beats, and wailing vocals. If their sound is invigoratingly anachronistic, then their presentation is positively otherworldly. They look like the kind of band the Leviathan would invite to play Pinhead’s Malibu Beach Birthday Bash, by which I mean their horror/ sci-fi-influenced theatrics are the kind of flamboyant shock rock guaranteed to tear your soul apart.
smoky tiger
If you are looking to be Winnipeg’s resident shamanistic song and dance man, delighting fans by re-interpreting pop/rock standards and spinning original tales based on prairie legends and personal myths, it sucks to be you because the position has been filled. Andrew Courtnage’s body resides in Winnipeg but his soul is a permanent resident of Black Rock City, Nevada. With a baritone voice that can melt the coldest heart at 40 below and a tendency to disappear behind
his vintage organ only to reappear wearing a new costume, Smoky is a Winnipeg original that is sure leave an impression.
merch table Delite
Probably one of the most controversial acts this city has to offer right now. Executed with a flair for self-aggrandizing hyperbole and created by frontman Nick Friesen (the Uniter and the No Label Collective), nobody can decide whether this band is for real or an elaborate joke. The 10
albums they have released are so lo-fi that they are nearly unlistenable, the singer is not blessed with any natural vocal ability, and the live act is made up of mostly non-musicians. Are they so earnest that they are blind to the fact that their reach exceeds their grasp? Or is the band a comment on a society so hungry for honesty it will ignore musical failings if it fits the predetermined stylistic signifiers of a genre like lo-fi? Without an artist statement we will never know for sure.
Skip the flowers and chocolate
Awesome ways to spend Valentine’s Day, even for the loneliest of hearts
Jenn A d iubA ldo, staff
Acoustic Valentine’s Dinner Show
With Romi Mayes & Jason Nowicki Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club
Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.
Take your honey to a double header of acoustic music featuring Winnipeg’s lovely Romi Mayes and Jason Nowicki of the Perpetrators. Enjoy some delicious Mexican food courtesy of Times Change(d)’s kitchen named Pollo Volonte while you’re at it!
Lonely People’s Show
With Andrew Neville & the Poor Choices
Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club
Feb. 14 at 10:30 p.m.
The name explains it all – if you’re single, lonely, and ain’t got nowhere to be on Valentine’s Day then this is the show for you. Enjoy some premium boot-stompin’ country music while you guzzle down shots of bourbon to ease the pain of being single on Valentine’s Day.
A Red Hot Rockabilly
Valentine
With the Sons of Rockabilly, Greg Arcade, and the Fl!p Cats
The Regal Beagle Feb. 15 at 9 p.m.
If you’re looking to take your baby to a night of good ol’ rock and roll then look no further! Featuring music from the Sons of Rockabilly, Greg Arcade, and the Fl!p Cats, not to mention over $400 in door prizes, this night promises to be a rockin’ good time.
If there’s one thing Winnipeggers don’t fear, it’s the cold. This pop-up restaurant put together by Mandel Hitzer, chef/owner of new restaurant Deer + Almond, and Joe Kalturnyk, director of RAW Art Gallery, is smack dab in the middle of the frozen Red and Assiniboine rivers. If you’re willing to exchange valentines a day early, be sure to grab some tickets to the closing night of RAW: Almond
Lacking flavour
Restaurant review: Modern Taco Company
Jenn
A d iubA ldo, staff
To say that I love Mexican food would be an understatement. I will pretty much eat Mexican food at any given time on any given day. So when I heard that a new restaurant boasting a modern take on Mexican cuisine had opened, I was pretty excited to check it out.
My partner and I arrived at about 7 p.m. on a Friday excited to try out this new taqueria for the first time. The restaurant was full, which I saw as a good sign –it’s always great to see a new local business thriving. Service at Modern Taco Company is canteen style and I was pretty hungry so I ordered four tacos: maple chipotle pulled pork, marinated grilled steak, jerk chicken, and the falafel taco. My partner and I also ordered the chips and dip to share, which came with pico de gallo and
guacamole.
Our chips and dip came out pretty quickly; both dips tasted fresh, but were bland and lacked flavour.
The atmosphere was cozy but incredibly hot and smelled strongly of grease, enough so that I had to change when I got home because my clothes were saturated with the smell.
This would work nice as a palate cleanser between spicy dishes, but as an appetizer it was underwhelming.
The atmosphere was cozy but incredibly hot and smelled strongly of grease, enough that I had to change when I got home because my clothes were saturated with the smell.
Our food took about 30 minutes after that to come out. We found ourselves wondering if they had forgotten about us as no one had really let us know what was going on and why service was so slow. When our food finally came out, the server was extremely apologetic and remarked that this was the busiest night they’ve had since they opened.
and enjoy a five-course gourmet meal in a beautifully decorated, heated dining room with a tent for a roof and ice for a floor.
Festival du Voyageur
Various Locations
Feb. 15 – Feb. 24
What better way to spend some quality time with your special someone than by celebrating our FrenchCanadian ancestors? Take in some live music and a frozen glass of caribou in the ice bar, and then dance the night away while eating maple syrup on a stick in the sugar shack.
Milk & Honey
With DJ Co-op and DJ Kassia Ozzy’s Bar and Nightclub Feb. 14 at 8 p.m.
If you want to guarantee a sloppy, sexy Valentine’s Day you best dance with your honey at Milk & Honey, a weekly dance party put on by local favourites DJ Co-op and DJ Kassia.
FunDrive/Draft Night
With J Riley Hill and the Magic Bears, Smoky Tiger, and the Blisters
The Windsor Hotel Feb. 14 at 9:30 p.m.
If your perfect Valentine’s Day includes cheap beer, good music, and supporting local radio, then you’ve come to the right place. This show is organized in order to raise funds for community-driven radio station CKUW 95.9 FM during their annual FunDrive. Who knew being charitable could be so fun?
The Museum of Broken Hearts
The Edge Gallery Feb. 14 – Feb. 26
Not your average museum, this gallery show is a graveyard for objects from deceased romances as collected through an open call for submissions. Bring your loved one to bask in the glow of many failed relationships while you consider how lucky and thankful you are that “your relationship isn’t like that.”
Idle No More Winnipeg Valentine’s Day Party
365 Hargrave Street Feb. 14 at 12 p.m.
Spend your Valentine’s Day making change in our country by attending one of the many Idle No More protests. Join numerous other activists at the Aboriginal and Northern Affairs building while they safely and respectfully sing songs and write valentines to Prime Minister Harper in support of Have a Heart Day, a national day of support for First Nations children to grow up safe, happy, and at home with their families.
We happily dug into our food as we were quite hungry by this point, but were certainly disappointed to say the least.
The tacos were somewhat soggy and bordering on cold when we got to them, which I suppose might be due to the fact that the kitchen was overwhelmed, but still not what you hope for in a taco. The offerings also seemed quite small even for a taco, especially at a price point of $10.75 for four.
I tried the marinated steak taco first, which came with caramelized onions on top. It had a bold BBQ taste but lacked other dimensions. The flavour was one note and left me wanting more.
Second up was the jerk chicken taco, which I ordered without pineapple due to allergies. I was under the impression that it would come with other toppings as well, but sadly I was presented with a taco shell filled with chicken and nothing else. I would have appreciated it if the employee who had taken my order had pointed this out prior to ordering, but I suppose that was really my mistake.
The flavour of the jerk chicken was bland and surprisingly not spicy at all. All of the jerk chicken flavours were present but far off in the distance, to
the point where I felt myself straining to taste them fully.
I then tried the falafel taco, which was hearty and would likely be a great treat if I was a vegetarian or vegan, but I again found myself struggling with the lack of flavour, adding lots of hot sauce in order to taste anything at all.
Last, but certainly not least, was the maple chipotle pork, which I purposely saved because of my love for pulled pork. This one was easily my favourite as it was packed with smoky chipotle BBQ flavour and
topped with a sprinkling of pickled red onions. I still, however, found myself wanting more and could have eaten at least another one of these wonderful pork tacos. All in all, Modern Taco Company gets a thumbs down from this taco lover. I definitely see what they’re aiming for with their healthy, fresh take on Mexican food, but their food needs to pack more of a punch in order to get me on board.
By Xiaofeng Guan
FOLLOWING THE HERD
HOCKEY
BISON
1-1-2
Bisons playoff preview
Checking how U of M stacks up in the post-season
d e Re K gAgnon, staff
T
he regular season for the Bison teams on the court and on the ice is reaching its finale, meaning it’s time to look forward to the playoffs starting next weekend. It’s been a mixed bag of results for the various U of M teams, with most teams finishing the season in a playoff position.
Men’s basketball
The results have been very positive for the men’s basketball team this season, as they went into press time with a record of 14-7, which has them in third place in the Prairie Division of the Canada West Conference with one game to play against the crosstown rival University of Winnipeg. The Bisons will not know their postseason fate until next weekend when the rest of the Canada West teams wrap up their seasons, but a win against the Wesmen would greatly improve their playoff hopes. It is still possible for them to finish first in the Prairie Division—or in fifth and out of the playoffs altogether—in what has been a very competitive year in men’s hoops.
Women’s basketball
The women’s basketball team started the season 2-2, but has since lost 17 games in a row to leave them with a 2-19 record – the second worst record in Canada West. It has by no means been an inspiring season from the team, but they can take solace in the fact that every player is eligible to come back next year with one more year of experience under their belt.
Men’s hockey
A disheartening loss in the last game of the season against Regina means that the men’s hockey team finishes in third place, after dropping out of a second place spot that would have given them a first-round bye in the playoffs. Instead, they will faceoff against the Regina Cougars for a second weekend in a row, with a best-
of-three series set to take place at the Max Bell Arena starting on Friday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. Be sure to head down to support the team on their quest for a Canada West title.
Women’s hockey
The women’s hockey team was only able to earn one point on the road against second-place Regina in their final weekend of regular season
play, meaning they finished in the sixth and final Canada West playoff spot with a record of 10-12-6. They will travel to the 17-7-4 UBC next weekend for a best-of-three series against the Thunderbirds.
Men’s volleyball
With a 14-8 season completed, the volleyball team finished the Canada West season in fifth place and will travel to face UBC in a playoff to determine whether the Bisons or Thunderbirds will reach the Canada West Final Four. Five fifth-year players would love to see their season extended at least another week.
Women’s volleyball
A final weekend sweep of the Saskatchewan Huskies meant the Bisons ended their season with a record of 12-10 to finish in sixth place in Canada West, and will travel to face the third-place Alberta Pandas. The Pandas, who finished the season 15-7, certainly must be viewed as a more favourable opponent than second-place Trinity Western, who finished at 19-3.
The unlikeliest of Olympic competitors
The most memorable heroes from the 1988 Calgary Olympics
AdAM Pelesh Aty, staff
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the first Winter Olympics held on Canadian soil.
From February 13-28, 1988, 1,423 athletes descended onto Calgary for the XV Winter Olympic Games. While the games may be remembered for Matti Nykänen, Alberto Tomba, the Battle of the Brians, and other great athletic performances, two stand out not because they were great—in fact, both finished near or dead last— but because they may have been the unlikeliest athletes ever to reach the Olympic Games and have achieved the status of myth.
The story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team was forever immortalized in the 1993 Disney movie Cool Runnings starring the late John Candy. However, as usually happens in films “based on a true story,” the filmmakers took liberties on what really happened. So here is the truth. Two expat American businessmen, George Fitch and William Maloney, believed Jamaicans would be natural bobsledders due to their sprinting ability and the popularity of pushcart derbies in the country. But after finding few volunteers, the businessmen approached the military and from the military came three athletes: driver Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, and brakeman Michael White.
Both Stokes and White competed in the two-man sled where
they finished 30th out of 41 sleds, but the four-man sled almost did not happen. After an injury to one of the four-man sledders, Stokes suggested his younger brother Chris, a sprinter at the University of Idaho, as a replacement. With nothing to lose, and Chris already in town as an Olympic spectator, they were able to get him accreditation in time for him to compete for Jamaica. During
the third of four runs, the sled overturned and while the team walked the sled over the finish line, it was officially a DNF. Despite the failure in 1988, Jamaica continued to compete in bobsleighing and actually finished 14th in the four-man competition six years later in Lillehammer, ahead of both American and Russian sleds. Lascelles Brown, a former brakeman for Jamaica, later won two Olympic
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medals for Canada: silver in Turin and bronze in Vancouver.
Just like the Jamaicans, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, a far-sighted, slightly overweight plasterer/ski jumper from Great Britain, also became a big story in Calgary. A former downhill skier, Edwards decided to take up ski jumping, and when no other Brits applied, his Olympic dream seemed to be in reach. Despite finishing last at the
1987 World Championships, he managed to qualify for Calgary. In fact, he learned of his qualification while being lodged at a Finnish mental hospital due to lack of funds.
Just as in the World Championships, the results weren’t any different in Calgary. In both the normal hill and large hill events, Edwards scored approximately half as many points as the jumper in second-to-last place. He had a 55m jump on the normal hill and 71m on the large hill. By comparison, Matti Nykänen had jumps of 89.5m and 118.5m. Despite this, Edwards became a celebrity and even appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Ten years later, he attempted to qualify for the Nagano Olympics where, despite having sponsors and a 40m improvement on the large hill, he was unsuccessful. In January, 2010 Edwards took part in the Olympic Torch Relay and ran his leg in Winnipeg.
The International Olympic Committee later tightened its rules regarding Olympic qualification after Edwards’ performance, and perhaps more deserving athletes should have gone to Calgary instead of him and the Jamaican bobsledders. But these two examples have shown that the Olympic dream is possible for any athlete.
